Tips for Protecting Your Data

Too often people don’t think about their online or digital safety. They will lock their doors, put an alarm in their home if they have one, and they even insure their physical belongings. Their digital information, however, doesn’t get the same number of precautions. This is either because people don’t believe there is a lot of value in their digital info, or that they simply believe that their data is safe.

Protecting your computer from being stolen, however, isn’t enough. From damage and theft to hacking, you need to increase your data’s protection. It doesn’t matter if you are an individual, or a multi-million-dollar company, you need to follow these steps:

1. Make Each Password Unique

Breaches will happen. It isn’t so much a matter of if, but when. That is why everyone needs to have a unique set of passwords for each and every one of their accounts. This is particularly true for important accounts that have your credit card data or other personal information. The more unique the password, the better. You can now have programs that generate and protect your passwords for you. This data is encrypted, meaning that without the master password to get in, no one can access these codes.

Doing this will ensure that if a company has a data breach, and hackers gain access to your account details and your password, that they cannot do any more harm. The last thing you want to do is have a small account hacked, only for that password to be the same as the one needed to log in to your online banking. Keep your passwords unique, and you better protect the data on your other accounts.

2. Protect Your Cloud Data

Companies that provide cloud computing aren’t any safer than any of the other mega-corporations that have been hacked. That is why you need to put extra security measures in place. These measures encrypt and protect your data so that your data is as protected as it can be once it’s online. Be smarter about the information you put online, and your data will be safer.

3. Learn Phishing Tactics

Downloading viruses and ransomware is one of the most frustrating experiences that can also delete, corrupt, or steal your data. Learn about phishing tactics and how to protect yourself from them. Phishing can be done through email, or phone, and the purpose of each scam depends on circumstances. Sometimes it could be an attempt to steal your credit card information, other times it could be to infect your computer.

4. Hardware Malfunction

On top of outside forces infecting or stealing your data, you also need to protect your data locally. Do this by backing up your data as often as feasible, either to the cloud or on another hard drive. If your hard drive has failed before you can commit to this backup, or if you accidentally delete something, don’t worry. There are SSD Data Recovery options that can give you your information back.

Protecting your data should become second nature. Adopt these practices, or train your employees in these practices, and you will be one step closer to protecting your data.